Alternate Betrayal
by sandhill
Summary: An alternate storyline based on the first Legacy of The Force novel.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, any of the Legacy of the Force books, or any of these characters.

Prologue -

spoiler alert!: This story is an alternate scenarioe of what could have happened in Betrayal, the first book in the Legacy of The Force series. This is what I personally would have wanted to happen regarding Jason, Nelani, Brisha, and Ben. I like to play roleplaying games like Star Wars D20, and couldn't help but fantasize about what could have happened. I'll write at least 3, probably 5 or more, chapters so, feel free to follow, and I'll put up a poll soon, because I'm interested in writing what your interested in reading.

I will very briefly give essential information below for those who have not read this book and add a slight spin to match my storyline, but if you'd just like to dive in feel free to skip to chapter 2, which is in fact chapter one :D Love you! Bet you didn't expect that. Hope you have a great day!

In a galaxy far far away…

STAR WARS

Less than half a century after the destruction of the second death star, and the dissolvement of the empire, the galaxy is again in crisis. Corellia wishes more autonomy, while the Galactic Alliance is viewed as growing more imperical. Negotiations between the two parties abruptly were broken off when an assassination team arrived at a neutral meeting place and murdered a number of representatives before a settlement could be reached. The Corellian prime minister was among the dead. Jason Solo, acting on an piece of evidence recovered from the scene, arrived on the planet Lorrd to learn more about that artifact from a professor.

On Lorrd he and his apprentice Ben Skywalker linked up with the local jedi assigned to the planet named nelani. After a few strange happenings involving deranged individuals commiting acts of destructive or harmful activity, the trio meet a suspicious individual called Brisha. The suspect led them away to an isolated asteroid near Bemmiel, which was previously headquarters for a mining project, with the promise of providing evidence to help crack the investigation, and show them the source of what is causing terrorist attacks on Lorrd. While inside the asteroid habitat the trio of jedi were attacked by force phantoms and separated from one another.

Jason and Brisha began a conversation where she revealed that she had been testing him and that his destiny was to bring peace to the galaxy. She would help him to develop his powers as a force user, if he would not constrain himself only to the light side of the force. Nelani came upon the conversation, and drew her lightsaber to bring Brisha in to custody…


	2. Opening Scene

"Wait!"

Nelani and Brisha froze in place. It had immenated from deep within Jason's being, enhanced by the force. His eyes slowly opened as if he had been deep in thought. He had. The possibilities of how this event would shape the future had ran through his mind in nanoseconds, but seemed to have taken hours to play out. He had latched onto something surprising. Brisha would kneel, feigning surrender as a means to throw off he, and Nelani's suspicion.

"I am at your service." She would say as an appeal to Jason, thinking it would keep her from being arrested.

The thought had just began to germenate in her mind, and he quickly chose to use this to his advantadge.

"If you will serve me you must surrender." Jason sighed. He said this with an air of finality as if he had came to the same conclusion oblivious to her schemes. For a moment, Brisha's eyes were still locked with Nelani's, but after some thought her hand relaxed, and hung motionless at her side.

"cuff her." Jason said. Nelani powered down her orange lightsaber and took out her stuncuffs. "I'm going to go check on my other apprentice." He assured Brisha in the force before turning to leave.

Brisha blinked as if she had somehow missed something, but said nothing.

Nelani wrinkled her nose up perplexed with what he meant, and then shook her head. Obviously, he had gotten too sure of himself; already viewing her as his new apprentice apparently.

"I've been a knight for two years." She said under her breath. She almost laughed, thinking at first that he had refferred to Brisha as his apprentice. But, then again, had he really said, "serve?"

Jason reached out in the force and found Ben curled on the rock floor when he arrived back in the dark cavernous mined out section of the asteroid. He sensed that Ben was in pain and unconcious, and felt his face redden with anger. His hand automatically reached for his lightsaber, and he began to wheel around to go cut down Brisha, but caught himself. He had forgotten how strong the dark side was inside the asteroid, and his anger had almost gotten out of control. A light sweat began to chill him again. By now they were all soaked though. He hopped from one spot to another. It was a difficult unmanageable terrain. However, the artificial gravity generators didn't reach this far, and a lower gravity made it easier. Ben lay on the craggy cavern floor. In the dark he resembled a heap of ruffled robes.

Jason continued in thought as he approached. He was treading on dangerous ground in more ways than one, and had better figure out how to resolve this, or he'd get Ben and Nelani killed.

At the same time though, allowing Brisha to be wasted was an equal tragedy, or possibly even worse. All of the possible futures he had seen with Brisha being arrested by Nelani ended in a nightmareish reality, but the ones where he had allowed her to teach him were much better for the galaxy. He knelt, placing a hand on Ben's shoulder, and concentrated in the force to help heal his wounds. It was more difficult to do here with such a dark aura surrounding them.

Ben was in some pain, but it wasn't very bad,thankfully. "Wake up." Ben heard, groggily opening his eyes. "Hunh? Mom?"

"What?" Jason was taken back.

"Uh, nothing. Where'd that force phantom go?" Ben asked.

"I don't know. Probably gone for good. Let's get out of here." Jason said.

Nelani met them on their way back as she held Brisha's arm and guided her along.

"Ok?" She asked them.

"yeah, I'm fine." Ben said even though his stomach was sore still. He was always trying to act older than his age, and hated being patronized by adults, so he acted tough.

"We need to go back for a second." Jason told Nelani, holding up an open palm to stop her.

"What for?" She asked

"There wasn't any time to check the area before we decided to leave."

"Can't we just come back later?" Nelani said, "Wouldn't it be best to take her in first?"

"ben, watch her." Jason said referring to Brisha, motioning away with his chin to Nelani.

They walked out of earshot, and turned to speak to one another facing away.

"we need to rest first." He said in a low voice. His face was serious. "We can't afford to risk transporting her on the ship while we're all so tired. If she were to cause trouble it could be a fatal mistake."

"Oh…." Nelani thought out loud. Her facial expression was grave. "Well, alright. What's next then?" She glanced over her shoulder, then leaned in close to Jason as he whispered something to her.

Nelani could feel his soft breath on her ear and the back of her neck, and suppressed a shudder. She quickly turned her head to hide a smile, looking back at ben and Brisha. "Okay." She agreed.

Brisha smirked at Ben while Jason and nelani were a distance away talking. "find some friends in the cavern to play with?"

He scowled at her but wasn't sure enough of himself to say anything, so just fumed silently. Jason and Nelani quickly returned.

"I want to explore the mansion here first." Jason said, and began to lead Brisha by the arm that way.

"Make up your mind whether or not you want me to play prisoner or tour guide." Brisha chuckled in a melodious tone.

"tour guide for now is good." Jason grinned nonchalantly shrugging.

Stone in this part of the asteroid was like polished onyx, and the mansion struck an odd scene. The group quickly strolled through the mansion together, but Jason seemed more interested in practical reconnaissance than a leisure tour. "Where are the living quarters?" He asked.

"On the second and third floors." Brisha said.

There were busts of different individuals, statues, and artwork scattered among the marble columns of the first floor. All had been souvenir's of darth Vectavis, Brisha informed them that she hadn't changed much of the layout from it's original form.

Ben trailed behind bored from lack of anything that interested him. Abruptly he halted, and back peddled a few steps to stop in front of a curious sculpture. If someone had been in just the right position they would have seen the bare back of a twilek statue with Ben on the opposite side admiring the front of the statue.

The twilek statue had been carved from an aqua green marble that was probably rare, astonishingly resembling the skin tone of a real twilek. She was casting a flirtatious smile back over her shoulder, her toga perpetually frozen in a manner suggesting that it was falling off.

Ben's eyebrows raised in amusement with a boyish expression on his face. He silently whistled to himself as his blue eyes skimmed down and up again at chest level admiring the art. His eyes seemed to happily jiggle like a bantha caught in headlights.

"Ben? You coming?" nelani's voice prodded him along.

In time they made their way up to the second floor, Brisha finally making the most of things and acting as travel guide showing off Darth Victavis's old mansion. This seemed to be where most of the sleeping quarters were. Jason stopped in front of the door to what had been identified as one of the guest bedrooms. The house architecture was Naboo and antique, but did have some modern conveniences. The hallways were a stuccoed creamy tan with hardwood floors.

"Are these doors programmed with security codes?" Jason asked.

"they were, but I had a droid reset them all when I moved in." Brisha responded. Her facial features showed her a bit perplexed. "Now, it's just the simple press to lock from the inside."

Jason pressed the open button on the keypad that was built into the doorframe and wall. It swooshed open to reveal a room that was about twelve by twelve feet. Not much was inside beside standard items, like the bed. "Yes!" Jason said under his breath after his eyes had skimmed it over.

The windows were transparasteel, and not a weaker antique glass. Perhaps Vectavis had been paranoid. In whatever case, it would work perfectly as a holding cell for Brisha while he went to comm back and check in before Luke and everyone back on coruscant grew suspicious.

He took Brisha by the arm and led her into the room. When they got to the side of the bed she blinked a few times as the blade of Jason's lightsaber snapped to life. The familiar smell of ozone cut through the air. The room was silent and the low hum was the only sound heard. Brisha could feel the warmth from the blade centimeters from her chin.

"Nelani." He began. "Uncuff her."

A few minutes later Ben found himself standing guard, pacing back and forth, outside Brisha's bedroom… er, cell door. Since she was confined he guessed he would just call it that. He was wondering when he could go back downstairs to sneek another peek at the… "art." Nelani was nearby exploring the rest of the mansion's second floor and the third.

Brisha, however, lay on the bed stairing up at the ceiling uncomfortable, her hands cuffed above her to the headboard. She was irritated as much by one of her loose bangs laying over her forehead, as much as her predicament. She puffed the whisp of hair up out of her way with her breath, and began to feel sleepy. "Long day." She muttered to herself.

Minutes later, the railcar reached the top of it's track. All the time Jason had been mulling over what exactly to do. It was a difficult balance. He had to stay in contact enough with the jedi counsel so as not to arouse suspicion, but not give away what he was really up to. Jason wondered if this was what it was like to be a double agent. Even more complicating was how he would manage Brisha, Nelani, and Ben without letting his guard down enough for Brisha to kill them.

He knew he was playing with fire, so he would have to remain vigilant, but the knowledge Brisha had to offer was too valuable. He hoped that, at least, if he ended up dying from taking the gamble Ben and Nelani might benefit from it somehow. If the galaxy would be better off, it was fine anyway regardless of what happened to him.


	3. Chapter 3 - Snake

*** Sorry this chapter took so long. There's a lot more already written, so the next one won't take as long to update. There's also still time to vote for what you'd like to see next. That's part of the reason it took so long for me to update. ***

He had been watching the station for hours, helmet and battle armor illuminated only by the console lights and screen. Snake free floated, harnessed to his pilot's chair as he quietly waited. There had been no activity in the surrounding space to suggest anyone was left around. He was acting only on a rumor and hunch he had picked up at a bar. The source sounded credible though. The guy hadn't been sloppy drunk, just inebriated enough to loosen his good sense and tongue. Snake had even bought him a round just for his helpfulness.

If this giant iron asteroid he was facing was the right one it was loaded, and so he had gone to find out if it was true. Back at the bar The Next One Over, on Alma 6 that furniture delivery guy just volunteered he had unloaded some expensive couches in an asteroid belt in the Bimmiel system. The guy bragged about getting a week's worth of pay as a tip. Snake remembered thinking it had to be someone rich who was either hiding, eccentric, or both.

Apparently, the curiosity had gotten the best of him. The ship's sensors had picked up another ship earlier that seemed to dissapper when he approached this part of the asteroid belt. At first he had stayed away thinking it might be a trap, but eventually concluded it was a coincidence. He had glanced at his ships console already knowing it was supposed to be cloaked. It never hurt to double check, but he hadn't detected any recent jumps to hyperspace. The only explaination was that the ship had simply disappeared into one of the asteroids at approximately this distance away.

The large iron one was the only one that could fit a starship inside, so he had slowly approached, and now his ship's computer was busy at work trying to convince the blast door he had found on the asteroid to open up. Numbers on the console ticked by at an imperceptible rate. This little code breaking gadget had come in handy at other stations he hadn't been invited to issuing a series of possible codes until a blast door would open. These doors were taking a suprising amount of time to break though. It was almost like it was military grade defense, and Snake began to get paranoid that he had been too close for too long.

Just as his hand reached forward to cancel it a chime rang confirming the code had finally been broken. He glanced up and sure enough the large doors sluggishly began to move. "I'm in. radio in to me if you don't hear back in 30 minutes." He sent a quick message over his helmet's comm.

A few moments later he began to dock. There was another ship in the bay, but no one was detected nearby. Quickly, he landed, and walked down his ship's ramp. Snake's olive drab armored suit was humanoid in shape, and he stood around 6'2" with a slim build. Blaster in hand, he made his way to the only opening to the hanger. There were a few parts and mechanical devices nearby not in use.

An display inside his helmet gave some idea of what the nearby hallways looked like from an overhead perspective. A sonar like device inside his ship had pinged the area with sound at a decibel that humans were unable to hear, and translated that image into a map inside his helmet.

Once, that little trick had come back to haunt him on a planet with the wrong species of alien on it. The sonar had acted as a sort of door bell announcing his presence, and things had quickly went downhill from there. That job was chalked up as a loss, but he had gotten out alive, and that's all that mattered.

He was lucky to be alive. Perhaps the force had some mission for him. Either that, or he had accidentally lived too long, and now it was only a matter of time before his luck ran out. This time the sonar could only give a partial display due to all of the iron inside the asteroid acting as interference. It was better than nothing, but he began to ignore it as he poked around. He usually only glanced up every once and a while to check his location.

The helmet visor now flickered as it adjusted to thermal view. A few heat signatures had caught his attention, but they were only heaters in the docking bay, and what must have been a public living area down the hallway to his left. It seemed that the amount of metal and structure material would also make it difficult to see very far with the thermal setting so he turned it off to conserve his suit's power supply.

His question had been answered though with a great deal of accuracy. There were no warm bodied individuals in the immediate area. "Spetlana, raise the ramp and take a break." He spoke into his helmet mic and the ship powered down to rest. "Tell me if you detect any activity."

The ship chimed back an affirmative jingle.

He turned down the hallway to the right, even though it seemed the less travelled path, just wanting to plunder a little, first. This section of the habitat seemed like a mixture of living quarters and office space, but there was nothing immediate that was important. A cold chill ran up his spine. Something was creepy about this place, and he suddenly had the desire to flee. For a place this size there didn't seem to be anybody living here though. Weird. It had all the appearances of being some large operation, but there had only been the one ship in the bay.

*Ding!* an electronic bell rang from down the hall behind him. He spun around raising his blaster in one fluid motion. It was just a turbo lift announcing that one would arrive at this floor soon. "One humanoid presence detected 30 meters away." Spetlana purred softly in his helmet. His gloved hand pressed a button on his suit, and the hallway light began to flow over him as if washing his image away.

Seconds later Jason Solo stepped off of the turbo lift and headed towards the hanger bay. It was so silent in the habitat with no one around. Very creepy. There were just the sounds of the heaters warming the bay and his footsteps echoing down the hall to keep him company.

The figure that had emerged from the turbo lift had surprised Snake. It was a young red haired human male wearing robes, with a lightsaber on his belt, and he didn't seem very happy. The male glanced up the hallway straight at him as he walked. Snake perspired inside his armored suit.

"Oh crap!" He thought. "I crashed the party on some sith lair!" "Maybe he's a jedi," Snake thought. "But probably not with my luck." He held his breath, and the young man continued on without a second thought. Even though Snake's suit was invisible through cloaking technology it was a nervous habit whenever someone looked directly at him. He would wonder if somehow they'd spotted him. The young man just turned the corner and headed inside the hangar area.

Although immersed in thought the other ship now inside the bay haddn't escape Jason's attention. "I don't remember that." He said to himself out loud, stopping momentarily.

As he reached his ship he glanced around cautiously, but credited it to his having been experiencing so much at the time that they had arrived, that he had somehow overlooked the small ship. It was an inconspicuous olive drab color, after all. He soon payed it no attention and headed up the ramp of the ship that he and the others had came on. Jason had been busy trying to think of how to address Luke when he checked in, not wanting to give too much away, but still sound too busy to stay in close contact in case Luke pried. If he somehow found out Jason, Ben, and Nelani were hanging out with some stranger named Brisha it would be over, and he'd never find the answer to the questions Brisha could give him. But there was more. He felt something for her, a closeness he couldn't yet explain, and wanted to find out what it meant. There was some connection, an almost lure Brishah had for him.


	4. Chapter 4 Transmission

Snake peeked around the corner and spotted the man as he walked up the ramp of what must have been the ship he had came on. Once he was convinced the man was either about to leave, or too busy to bother his ship, he began to explore some more.

A faint whine rang and slowly dissipated as the ships antenna powered up. The image of Luke Skywalker became clear.

"Hey, Uncle Luke." Jason began. "Before you get on me about trading missions with Jaina, I've got some good news to report, and I'll explain why I wanted to swap with her."

Luke sighed and waited. "yes?"

"Well, when I had looked over the clue Jaina found at the crime scene I felt like I knew what part of the artifact meant. It was like I instinctively knew and was supposed to find out why."

"Hmm…" Luke mused over what Jason was saying. "… go on."

"To find out if the force was in it, I ended up on Lorrd to meet with a professor who helped identify the rest of the tassles."

"Then what?"

"Ben and I met up with a local jedi named Nelani-"

Luke's voice had been his usual strong serene tone, but this seemed to animate him a bit, "Hmm…Nealani-Nelani? Oh, yeah, I know her. She's a good girl." he interjected. "Didn't you help train her some time ago?"

"Yes. Well, Ben and I linked up with her because of some strange occurances, and are working to trace the origin of them."

"I was sorry to hear about the aquarium situation." Luke's tone was sympathetic, since one of the hostages had died, despite Jason, Ben and Nelani's attempt to stop it.

Jason almost jumped, having not expected Luke to have already found out over the holonet that he and Ben had strayed from their orders and went to Lorrd.

After a moment he broke the silence.

"I think we may be close to finding out who ordered the assassination team. We're still in the process of getting to the bottom of things, but I'll send a report as soon as possible."

There was a long pause before Luke's voice came back over the comm. "Jason, be careful. I sense there may be danger where you are. You're not still on Lorrd, are you?"

"No. We had to take a detour in the course of the investigation, but will be back soon."

"Well, the force be with you. Remind Ben to call when he has the time."

"Yes sir."

The transmission ended and all was silent in the cockpit. That had been much easier than anticipated. Now, all was left to keeping Nelani and Ben happy so Brisha could stay out of Galactic Alliance custody longer.

He knew she would hhelp him further develop his powers and knowledge of the force, and yet kept trying to convince himself he wouldn't need her long.

After they were done, Jason activated an astromech droid that had been brought with them, and began to head back to the mansion inside the asteroid, where the others were. First though, he grabbed ben and Nelani's things, with his own, to take it to them.

"come on C4." He said with a grin. He and Ben had jokingly named the droid that. It twirtled and followed.

Every time the lift doors opened to reveal no one inside the habitat, Snake was relieved yet intrigued. It was surprising that such a large outfit like this that had to have costed a small fortune to build was practically abandoned.

The 4th floor was remarkably different than the previous ones and gave him a bolt of intrigue. He almost fired a shot when the doors had opened, as his gaze met that of a Rodian's head inside a jar resting on a bookshelf.

"disturbing." He exhaled, but couldn't help but grin. Who in this crazy galaxy would want a rodian head as a library decoration? He pushed the thought away when he remembered that there were far more sinister presences than he'd like to think. In his line of work you seemed to meet them all.

Rodian head and all, this floor was promising, however. The other floors didn't have very much interesting in the way of pillage, so this was a change of pace.

He walked up the catwalk to go over to the rodian head to see if their was any inscription but couldn't find any. "Must have owed somebody money." He muttered to himself.

His visored helmet slowly turned to take in the library from that angle.

The atrium was beautiful, except for the scratches on the transparasteel ceiling.

They were probably from the other asteroids in the belt.

He took a few pictures of the room with his helmet camera and then spotted what he had came for.

Back towards the lift was something shiny displayed on the wall. It was a beautifully crafted dagger. The sheath was encrusted with jewels, and the handle was a combination of wood and precious metal.

"Probably worth 5,000 credits in jewls alone." He appraised, and took it.

"Well, I've already overstayed my welcome, I think." He wondered aloud, then got in the lift again and made for the exit. Something told Snake to turn his stealth camoflauge back on, and he disappeared as he stepped inside and spun around. As the turbo lift doors began to close he burst into laughter noticing the expensive couches back in the library for the first time. When Snake had first arrived at this floor and the doors opened it was impossible not to stare at the Rodian head, and he had completely missed the couches. They looked new, and were probably the ones the delivery guy back at the bar had been talking about.

It just seemed so funny, but his smile quickly flattened as the doors opened at the hangar floor. The menacing robed male was waiting to get on the lift—there was no room to get off—he had a droid with him—would there be enough room!?

Snake just shifted his weight and stepped lightly backwards and pressed into a corner as the man and droid stepped on. The astromech droid was making so much noise that it masked Snake's movement. Thankfully the robed man seemed a little tired, and wasn't trying to take up the whole lift. It did help that the turbolift was larger than the smaller sized ones. It wasn't the industrial lift for heavy machinery or anything, but did seem designed to accommodate six or more people.

The man was carrying what looked to be a couple of overnight bags. Snake held his breath until the lift chimed, having reached a floor he hadn't explored yet. The doors opened, and Snake paused before stepping out after them. It was a large cavernous area. He had made a quick spot check of the surroundings before deciding this floor wasn't bad news. There was a rail cart that the man and droid had settled onto, and after a quick check that the droid was secure the cart took off down the rail.

Snake fumed. He had been so caught up taking in the surrounding of the caverns, and lack of gravity that the only cart had gotten away. It looked like he would have to walk if he'd catch up with them, and the lack of gravity meant… well, it might be fun to jump and stuff. "Mmm…" He stretched and smiled feeling the pressure on his back relax. "Well, at least that's one benefit of less gravity."

Nelani and Ben stood in the hallway a few steps from Brisha's makeshift cell. She was telling him more about Lorrd but he began to tune her out and listen to a thump he thought he had heard upstairs.

"…and the café that looks out over the fountain and park is one of my favorite-" Nelani stopped abruptly glancing up the hallway to see what Ben was starring at. "thump-thump-thump," came the sound of heavy footsteps down the stairs from the third floor. It was one of the protocol droids painted red, and he was coming towards them.

Nelani's stomach suddenly felt knotted. The droid's arm was at waist level, pointing towards them, and out of the top of it came the flash of a blaster bolt. Ben's lightsaber snapped to life, deflecting the bolt into the ceiling. He wasn't complaining though, since he felt fortunate to have blocked it at all.

Nelani raised her hand in the droids direction and used a force strike to fling it backwards through the air.

Ben could have swore the droid's eyes had momentarily lit up in surprise as it smacked squarely against the wall with a loud clanking sound.

"What the #!$ ?" he exclaimed over the racket of it clattering down the stairs.

Nelani still felt grave danger, and spun around just in time to deflect a bolt coming from the other end of the hall. It was from a gold colored droid with a similar blaster built into it's arm. The bolt flew past it's head shattering a window behind it.

Before Nelani could do anything else Ben lept forward and his lightsaber arced up severing it's arm. His lightsaber then opened the chest of the droid like a tin can. It sparked and jerked then fell to the floor. The two just glanced at each other quizzically for a moment.


	5. Chapter 5 Fight Scene

As Ben and nelani stood their speechless he noticed something with his peripheral vision and looked just in time to make eye contact with Jason. Jason had apparently been stopped a few yards away from the house by some sort of soldiers in white blast armor.

"Ben! Trouble headed your way!" He yelled deflecting blaster bolts from a squad of the soldiers. Ben glanced down to see the top of the last white helmeted soldier disappear from view. They were infiltrating the mansion, trapping them inside!

Ben paused, slowed down his thoughts, and focused to help Jason for a moment. He stretched his hand forward and used the force to turned the weapon of one of the soldiers just in time for him to shoot another soldier to the right. Both he and Jason were shocked to see a flurry of sparks spew from the soldiers chest while collapsing.

"Their droids dressed in armor?" Ben thought under his breath. But, there was no time to worry about that now. He could hear the thud of boots coming up the stairs towards their floor.

"Ben!" Nelani yelled. He barely had enough time to catch the blaster rifle Nelani tossed him. She must have ran into one of the rooms while he was preoccupied and grabbed it. Funny, he hadn't noticed that part of the tour earlier, but oh well. It worked.

Ben's rifle began spraying bolts as the first soldier clamored up the stairs. He strafed to the side and put his back against the wall as the droid soldier behind the one who had fallen had returned fire. At least

they weren't trying to come up the stairs now. He could hear Nelani firing a smaller blaster down the other staircase.

"I'm keeping them at bay." He yelled down the hall to her. "Good." She said back, not bothering to turn her head and look away. Apparently, she was trying to locate another target. "I'm headed that way." Jason crackled over the comm.

Snake was just getting the feel of zero gravity again, one hop at a time further and further into the cavern when he heard the familiar sound of blaster fire echoing off the asteroid walls. Instinctivly he crouched, and levelled his own blaster towards the opening he had been heading for only to see nothing. Well, apparently, one stray blaster bolt had landed on the floor at the opening, but he could tell it wasn't meant for him.

He was still a good distance away, but the opening was at an angle and he had no clue what was going on around that corner. After a few seconds, he quickly began hopping that way again to get a closer look.

Whomp! Jason's lightsaber cut a swath into the two soldiers at the back of their squad as sparks spewed, bouncing off the ceiling and walls, and rained down around him. He quickly glanced to his left noticing the other squad who was now noticing him as well, from up the hall, and so Jason force lept up the stairs. Ben almost shot him.

"Whoa!" He gasped aloud. "what?! I told youI was headed your way!" Jason yelled excitedly, a mischevious grin on his face, and they burst into laughter.

"Last one."

They both looked just in time to see Nelani blowing a trail of smoke off her blaster barrel. "Thanks for distracting them." She smiled.

"Your welcome."

She approached them, but before she could say anything more they all heard a blaster sound off further away from the mansion. C4 was twirtling, trying to scurry away from two soldiers outside with him. Jason had left him back at the cart for cover, but there must have been a few soldiers he hadn'ta ccounted for, or they had come from another area.

Strange enough, one soldier droid was laying on the floor, as if it had been already felled. Ben felt helpless. He wasn't close enough to shoot without the risk of accidentally hitting C4, their astromech droid. "Dangit! They're going to get him." He complained.

Just then things got even stranger: A blaster bolt erupted from out of nowhere catching the first soldier in the chest. The other looked as if it were trying to get a lock on whatever the source of the bolt was, but another bolt burst, seemingly out of thin air, and dropped him as well.

They all stood there unsure, silently trying to figure out what had happened, or see where the bolts had came from when through the curtain of smoke from the droid soldiers the silhouette of what seemed like an invisible armored figure began to move towards the mining cart.

Snake had noticed the soldier droids were going to pick on the little astromech droid, and couldn't help but pity him. He partially was concerned about the owner's droid getting smashed anyway, since it might make things pretty inconvenient, if that was the only one they had. This was a backside kinda part of the galaxy, after all.

It felt like someone was watching him, and Snake looked up to the second floor window where his spectators were standing. "# $! they spotted me. Time to go." He thought and made for the mining cart.

Ben lept through the broken window and dampened his descent with the force to flat foot the asteroid stone floor as he sprinted that way. "Ben! Stop!" Jason tried to stop his apprentice. He lept down also and ran. By now the figure had cleared the swirls of smoke, and was no longer visible, although his direction was somewhat inferable.

"Ben, I said…" Jason began.

Caswish! The mining cart began to take off back up it's track.

The noise had spooked Ben a little, as he wasn't sure what to expect next. He hadn't thought ahead to when the figure would leave the smoke and be invisible again.

Just before Ben had stopped, he heard some weight clamor onto the cart, whoever it was had fired a few warning shots to slow him down. They were obviously only intended to deter him from getting to the mining cart first.

It looked like whoever it was had gotten away, and Jason sighed a breath of belief… That is, until Ben began to monkey around with what appeared to be an oxygen tank. Ben straddled the tank, squeezed his legs together holding it and wrenched the valve open.

"What are you-?" Was all Jason could say before being drowned out by a violent "swoosh!"

The further they had gotten away from the mansion the weaker the artificial gravity was. Ben rocketed up the cavern in the dark! He could tell though that he was coming up fast behind the mining cart, from it's lights, and was about to overtake it.

He began cutting off the oxygen flow by tightening the valve back down until just the momentum carried him. His little oxygen rocket ride began to slow, and he used the force to guide it down at the loading platform.

The cart had been left in it's normal place and Ben hurried to the elevator to see what floor number would pop up at the top of the screen. He waited, but it wasn't doing anything. "What?" He whispered to himself. "I know he couldn't have gotten here that fast." He held his lightsaber in hand and punched the button to summon the elevator back. The door slid open. It must have not went up to another floor yet. As Ben carefully watched the inside of the lift for any movement suddenly, from his immediate left he saw a flash and everything went dark. He felt numb, like he was in some sort of limbo state, and swore he heard someone say, "rookie."

Snake had rode the back seat of the mining cart so he could face behind it, where the boy who had tried to catch him was. They had disappeared, but after a few moments of riding in the mostly dark he heard yelling and couldn't believe what he saw: The boy was riding some kind of rocket or something after him! Thanks to his lead, Snake did have time to hop off of the cart when it arrived at the platform, but he knew that he wouldn't have time to get on the elevator. So, he waited beside the elevator in the shadows. Since it was just the boy who followed, he set the blaster for stun.

"He rode a tank?" Snake asked himself as he continued to watch and wait. It was probably either oxygen or helium inside.

While the boy reached forward to push the elevator button, Snake squeezed the trigger of his blaster while he was momentarily distracted.

Snake smiled smugly to himself. "Rookie." He muttered out loud as he stepped onto the lift and hit the button to go back up. As the lift zoomed past the bottom floors he spoke into the helmet mic, "Spetlana, prepare to leave."


End file.
